Hi Guys! Tonight I wanted to reach out to you all about how excited I am that the Olympics start in just a few days. On the 5th August the Olympics will be starting in Rio. I find this really exciting, because not only do I love to participate in sport but I also love to watch it, especially the Olympics. Its such a shame they only happen every 4 years, because I think they are such a great way to motivate people to participate in sport. After a lot of thinking I have decided to create the hashtag #riosuperfans and by doing this I am hoping to get more people involved in sport inspired by the Olympic Games. This is going to be such a great opportunity for parents to get children involved, and for ourselves to feel motivated to get active.

So between the 5th - 21st August I would love for people to use the hashtag #riosuperfans on all social media sites to show off how creative and active they are getting this summer. This can be something as simple as going out for a run and taking a selfie after or hashtagging your route, to creating Olympic like games with your children in the garden or maybe even a family competition. Or why not try something you've never done before? I mean how many of us have actual took part in fencing before? Is there a facility near you where you could get involved? These don't have to be solo activities either, why not get the girls together for a netball match?

I am honestly super excited to see what comes of this, and I'm on the hunt to find new sports I can have a go at too. Check out the video above to see Panasonic team up with team GB for a good giggle and a little reminder of how fun participating in sport can be. This challenge isn't for GB supporters only, this is for absolutely anyone to get involved with, I would love to see how many different nationalities I can get involved in this. This is also in no way a competition, just a little bit of fun to get us all a little bit more active this summer. Feel free to post as many images as you like, I really hope this helps people find the motivation they need to get active.

A massive thank you to the guys at Harissa Kitchen for inviting us to try out their new evening menu. Harissa has recently opened its doors in Sandyford, Newcastle. Harissa Kitchen was created my Food Nation, a leading food and nutrition social enterprise that is based in Newcastle. Their vision is to inspire people about good food and they focus on working with some of the most disadvantaged communities in Newcastle. Their aim when opening Harissa was to demonstrate what a successful and economically viable takeaway looks like and how it operates. I didn't realise how much thought had gone into the creation of Harissa Kitchen. The development was focused around 3 main issues; health, environment, and socio-culture.

Firstly there is the health side of things, the idea is to create a menu that offers a nutritionally balanced, seasonal menu that is free from trans-fats.

Secondly, there is environment. Harissa are worried about the issue of litter of food wrappers from takeaway restaurants, so to prevent this they complete litter picks within a 0.25 mile radius of the restaurant.

And last but certainly not least they ensure their working conditions, pay and training are all above that of the minimum standards. They actually offer pre-apprenticeship training placements for those aged 16-25 who are not in education, employment or training.

I know this is probably alot to take in when you originally thought this was going to be a restaurant review, but without knowing all of this information you wouldn't be able to understand how this restaurant could be the start of a new craze. Healthy eating is a very popular trend at the moment, and I think Harissa has picked the perfect time to open this restaurant. I know personally I would much prefer seeing more places open like Harissa than greasy kebab shops.

Talking of kebabs, this is the perfect moment for me to introduce you to the menu available at Harissa Kitchen, Sandyford. The menu has range of different items influenced by the Mediterranean and North Africa, I can hand on heart say there isn't one item on the menu that I tried that I wouldn't order again. I thoroughly enjoyed everything, and I did try quite a lot.

On arrival we were served drinks and nibbles, the nibbles included Spiced Roasted Nuts, Marinated Olives and Harissa House Pickles.

For the main course you could either choose 3-4 small 'tapas' style plates or a kebab with 1 small plate. On our table there was me, Jen and Tasha, and between us we decided to get a different kebab each and then to get 4 small dishes to try.

I went for the Slow Roasted Shoulder of Pork kebab with apple, grilled spring onion and crackling. And the four small plates we got were, Steamed Broccoli, Crispy Aubergine, Halloumi and North Yorkshire Air Dried Smoked Ham, Pancetta and Spicy Salami. Obviously these aren't items you would order from your normal takeaway shop, but they were super tasty. Hands down the Crispy Aubergine was the best dish of the evening, they were served with feta cheese which together melted in your mouth. I loved how different the kebab was from your normal greasy takeaway, it was so light but filled with flavour. I didn't feel at all bloated after the meal I just felt nice and comfortable.

For pudding I went for Chocolate Ganache Tart, not sure if this was healthy, but it was lovely.

Top marks for originality with the restaurant itself and the menu. I thoroughly enjoyed my evening and I will definitely be visiting again soon. I hope if any of you are in Newcastle you head to Harissa Kitchen and support this local business.

I'm pretty obsessed with music and I always love to pop my
headphones in whether it's while I'm walking to work, in the gym or travelling.
I find there's nothing worse than when you look in your handbag and you realise
you've left your headphones at home or you find your headphones are there but
they are in a massive tangle that takes ages to sort out.

I think I've finally found the answer to being able to listen to
music on the go without any hassle, and that's the dome8 phone case, as seen in
VOGUE. I received this phone case just before I travelled to Africa in June and it's
never been off my phone since. I choose the pink and white design as I thought
it looked quite cool. The design of the case is quite modern with bright block
colours, the case does look a little bulky at the back but once you understand
the reason for it then it makes sense. So the idea of the case is to be able to
carry your headphones around with you at all times aswell as keeping them
tangle free. The case has a rubber section at the back that hold your headphone
wires without getting them tangled, there is then two small holes that your
headphones fit into, keeping them attached while your on the go. The only
downfall to this design is that they only fit iPhone headphones and I quite like
using better quality headphones. I'm not sure if this is the same for other
models of phone though as I've only tried the iPhone 6 case. Over the last few
weeks I have used this case while travelling on 6 different flights as well as
while walking up and down Kilimanjaro, I've used it during all of my workouts
and found it so useful as so many times I forget to take my headphones with me.
It's also been great while ive been on lunch breaks at work because I can pop
my headphones out and watch a tv series if I get bored, or listen to music
while I have a walk around. It's so simple and easy to use but brilliant at
what it does.

How to use:

Using this case is pretty simple, on putting the headphones in the
case firstly you pop the headphones into the case, and then you wrap the cable
around the holder ensuring the headphone jack is tucked inside the case.

When using the headphones, you unravel the cable and then pop out
the headphones, and close the holder.

This is the diary I kept while in Tanzania climbing Kilimanjaro
in June 2016. I kept a diary to share my experience with my family and friends,
as well as for a personal record for years to come. I found this trip to be a
great personal achievement. I came home feeling that I had gained knowledge,
mental strength and lifelong friendship.

Before leaving on this trip I had previously
met most of our group at a training weekend we had in the peak district back in
April, and I had met up with MT to get to know her. So I was going into this
already knowing Rhian (who ends up being my tent buddy), Andi, Ollie, Dave,
Dan, Amish, and MT, so there were only 4 members of the group I hadn’t met.
This made me feel a lot more comfortable than I would have felt if I had never
met the group before.

A massive thank you to Dave for some of the photos below, without his photography I wouldn't have made it into many photos.

June 16th:

This morning I said goodbye to my Mum, Sean
and Phil at Newcastle Airport, a bit of a different goodbye than just leaving on
a normal holiday, as much as this is a planned trip I still have a little bit
of fear about the whole thing. I met with Marie-Therese (MT) at the airport
ready for our first flight to London Heathrow, this was the first of three
flight that got us to Tanzania. When we got to
Heathrow we met up with the rest of the team, as we’d all travelled from
different areas, this was a chance to meet the other 4 members of our team that
I didn’t yet know, these were Isla, Thusan, Dilsan and Simon, We also met our
Global adventure team leader Justin, he would travel with us and lead our group
up the mountain.

So the journey begins from here, safe to say
it's a pretty scary feeling, at the end of these two flights I'll be in
Tanzania ready to climb the largest stand alone mountain in the world. Not sure
why I was crazy enough to sign up for this but I'm pretty sure it's going to be
one of the best experiences of my life!

What a great way to start our trip, flights
delayed due to a thunder storm in London, bloody typical,
especially as anyone who knows me knows I'm terrified of thunder and
lightening.

We flew from London to Ethiopia with Ethiopian
Airlines, basically the long haul version of ryanair. The aeroplane was very
basic but as long as it gets us there in one piece that's all that matters. I'm
currently writing this at 2am on the morning of the 17th, looking around the aeroplane
where everyone seems to be sound asleep apart from myself and Isla. I just
can't get comfortable and the nerves seem to be kicking in, so I've spent the
whole journey watching films on the in-flight entertainment.

June 17th:

Just landed in Tanzania, after flying from Ethiopia to Kilimanjaro with
Ethiopian airlines again. Yet again not a wink of sleep, safe to say I'm
exhausted. We have arrived at Weru Weru lodge, the lodge is absolutely
stunning. This was a shock to me as I seem to have missed this part of the
itinerary, I thought we were setting off walking after we landed which is why I
had got myself so worked up about not sleeping. Our rooms are lovely, such a
great way to start our trip, outside of our rooms we found the lodge homed 4
camels and a tortoise, we all got far too excited getting selfies with them
all. In our group there are so many different personalities, but we all seem to
get on so well, I feel so lucky to be taking this challenge with such a great
group of people. We are going to spend our last few hours of luxury chilling
out for the night in the bar getting to know eachother abit better before we
set off tomorrow and making the most of our last hot shower and our last night
in a proper bed.

June 18th:

Day One. Today was the first day of walk
starting at the machame gate. Everyone seems to be really excited, with just a
few nerves. At machame gate we met our Tanzanian team leaders, here we are
walking with Ahsante Tours. Our group leaders are Bryson, Alex, JT, Laurian and
Professor. Setting off the weather was
lovely and warm however the day ended with a few showers. We walked 9km today
up to 2850m to our first camp which is Machame Camp, 9km doesn't sound far but
we have to walk at a 'Poley Poley' slow pace to help us acclimatise. It seems a
little strange at first walking so slow, but I can see it being beneficial
later on in the trip, it did give us chance to have a chat amongst ourselves
and get to know our team leaders abit. Today the porters set us up dinner at
the side of the pathway about 3 hours into our walk, the porters had prepared
us fried chicken, vegetable samosas and some chocolate snacks. We didn't know
what to expect food wise on this trip so anything tasty is a plus.

So we've got to our first camp, we've had a
bowl of hot water each to have a wash in. This is something we are going to
have to get used to, which is going to be pretty difficult. You get quite a
small amount of hot water, as the water they collect has to wash us morning and
night, aswell as being distilled for us to drink. We’ve had a couple of hours
to get our beds set up and get to know our campalittle, we’ve had some absolutely
hilarious experiences with the toilets but we’ll keep them stories between
friends.

Tonight for tea the chef had prepared us some
sweet and salty popcorn, pumpkin soup & spaghetti bolognaise. We were
pretty shocked at how good the food was, hopefully it'll be just as good the
whole trip. As much as it was pretty warm during the day today, the sunset at
about 6:30pm and the temperature
has dropped quite abit, so Andi has had the great idea of making hot water bottles
out of our metal water bottles, its making my sleeping bag a lot cosier. Absolutely
shattered tonight, never thought I would look forward to sleeping in a tent.
Feeling a little unwell today but think its just nerves and being away from
home.

June19th :

Day two. Today we walked from Machame camp to Shira camp. Only 6km in total
reaching up to 3850m, we are starting to get prepared for altitude sickness to
kick in, this is why we are covering short distances over 5-6 hours. We arrived
at camp to beautiful sun, so I took full advantage and found a nice rock to
have a little sunbath on. When we got to camp we welcomed to fried chicken and
chips for lunch, we couldn't believe our eyes. I am actually so shocked with
the food we are being served. We had an hour nap to rest ourselves before we
walked up to the Shira caves, to try and get ourselves used to the altitude,
and see some fantastic views. We were then greeted by all of our team of
porters and leaders, I’ve never met such cheery people. These guys work so hard
during the day yet they still had the energy to spend time with us singing and
dancing together. This was quite an emotional moment, it really made you
realise how much the porters do for us and how much we take for granted at
home. The guys introduced us to some Swahili songs, we had a right laugh, it
really picked me up. We then had tea which was beetroot salad, cucumber soup
and then beef sauce with pineapple rice, again such a good meal. At this stage
myself and Rhian are so happy to have a baby wipe body wash and clean our feet,
and apply a bit of moisturiser, it’s the little things. Its such a shame we are
all so tired on an evening we don’t get much time to hang out as a group,
however some of the guys have brought packs of cards so hopefully we’ll get
chance to play a few games.

June 20th:

Day Three. Didn’t sleep well at all last
night, managed to set my sleeping bag on top of a very uncomfortable rock.
Today we travelled from Shira camp to lava tower which reached up to 4800km,
today was super draining mentally and the whole team found it a struggle,
headaches definitely kicked in for me today. Good job I'm climbing with a
fantastic group of people as we work fantastically as a team and don't let
anyone drop behind out of their comfort zones. The walk itself wasn’t that
difficult I think it was just the fact it was such a warm day and it was our
first real run in with altitude, also it didn’t help that there wasn’t much to
see it was almost like walking on mars.

When we got to lava tower we stopped for some
lunch, here the chef had made us vegetable soup and cheese toasties, its
amazing how much the home comforts boost your spirit.

We then walked back down to 4000km to Barranco
camp to sleep, this is to help us adjust to the altitude. We had a few hours to
spare so half the group played games of cards to occupy our time, while some of
the others had an afternoon nap. Tonight it was great to speak to my mum and
Sean, made me remember why I was doing it and made me feel settled. I think
this will be the last time I get to speak to them till after summit day, not
sure if I’ll have any signal after today. For tea tonight we had leek soup and
chicken pasta, amazing yet again! An early night ready for Barranco wall in the
morning, this is gonna be quite a tough day that I’m quite looking forward to.

June 21st:

Today we walked Barranco wall, more scrambling
than walking, my legs are covered in bruises already. It got the adrenaline
going though, I found today so fun. We climbed up what I would describe as a
cliff face for around 3 hours. This was then followed with a zig zag walk to Karanga camp, in total 5.5 hours walk. Yet again the weather hasn’t been
brilliant, Im not too bothered what the weather is like now just as long as its
clear for summit night. When we got to camp we were served dinner of tuna and
chips. Half of us then got together to play cards while the others napped
again, unfortunately I can’t nap during the day else I wont sleep tonight.
Dinner tonight was mushroom soup & chicken curry and vegetable rice. An early
night is needed before tomorrow, tomorrow is the beginning of the start of
summit night can’t believe how fast the time is going.

June 22nd:

Today started with a reasonably small walk,
around 4km that takes us up to 4600km, to base camp. We've spent a couple of
hours playing cards in the mess tent, and filled up on pasta. We now need to
sleep till 9:30pm, then we wake up, eat again and get ready to start our summit
attempt. We set off at 11pm on what will be a 6-7 hour walk to hopefully reach Uhara peak which is the highest peak of Kilimanjaro, temperatures are meant to
be as low as -10 degrees.

Next time I write here I will hopefully have
made it to the top successfully.

Now its time to get some rest, fingers
crossed.

June 23rd:

Summit Day! We bloody did it, I can’t believe
it! Its all still so crazy, I can’t get my head around it. Every single one of
us made it to the top after possibly the hardest seven hours ever. We set off
at 11pm last night with only our head torches
to light our path, walking in pitch black is so draining. I honestly thought my
legs were going to give up on me, a massive thank you to Dan for keeping me
going the whole way, it was nice to have someone to chat to when your close to
giving up. By the time we reached Stella point, 150m from summit, I had no
feeling in my fingers or toes, temperatures were around -10 degrees and
emotions were pretty low. We stopped for a quick drink at Stella point before
setting off to the summit, a hot chocolate was just what I needed. It was
such a relief to of reached Stella point, even though it wasn’t the summit I
felt overcome with emotions. As a team we worked so hard to get to this point, I really couldn’t of asked for a better team
to do it with. At 6:30am we finally reached the summit, what an achievement, I
never realised how emotional this experience would be. The views from summit
were astonishing, I don’t feel any of the photos do it justice. After days of rubbish weather and cloudy skies, this morning the sky couldn't have been clearer. We were so lucky. The most
amazing part is that every single one of us made it to the top, I am so proud
of everyone.

Once we got back to camp we had just over an
hour to rest before we headed off on a two hour walk to our camp for the
evening. Walking down hill is so much easier. We are now currently in millennium
camp ready to chill for the evening and get something to eat. I cant believe
this is our last night on the mountain, but so happy it’s the last night I have
to sleep in the tent. At this point you don’t really have much concept of date
or time all we’ve been counting is the days its taken us.

Tomorrow we have around a 5 hour walk then we
will be at the end of our journey, scary as the days have gone so fast.

June 24th:

Last day on the mountain, and it’s all over. I
feel a little bit sad.

Today we
walked for around 5 hours to get to the bottom of the mountain, I’ve never
known 5 hours drag so much, my knees aches and my toes feel bruised. But such
an amazing feeling being stood at the bottom of the mountain with a nice
Kilimanjaro beer, and it was so good that we were all together to celebrate. We
are off now for a nice lunch and then back to the lodge to get a lovely hot
shower and to start celebrating, whoop!! I’ll leave this entry here as tonight
is probably going to get quite messy.

June 25th:

Our last
day in Tanzania, time for abit of reflection. I’m currently laid on my bed in
the lodge thinking about how crazy the last 7 days have been, while Rhian
snores away next to me sound asleep, think someone had abit too much to drink
last night.

By the
end of today we will be on our way back to the UK. It’s sad thinking I have
spent the last year getting ready for this trip, fundraising, buying equipment
and getting to know the people I was travelling with. And now we’ve done it.

I am so
glad that I decided to sign up to this challenge, I feel like I have achieved a
lot physically and mentally over the last 7 days. I know that probably sounds
daft to some people but parts of this trip have been bloody hard and I’ve
always managed to pick myself up and get on with it.

I can’t
wait to get home and share my adventure with my family and friends, the photos
wont ever show how amazing the views and experiences were but I will always
have them memories.

I’m going
to end this diary now, everybody knows the travelling home part is nowhere near
as fun as the way here so I wouldn’t want to bore you with them details. I know
for some this diary may not interest them, but I hope with sharing my
experience it may encourage at least one person to cross something off their
bucket list.

Now to
get planning for Machu Picchu in 2 years time. What are you going to tick off
your bucket list?